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Nancy Grace

High School Cheerleader Charged in Murder; Deadly Kayak Accident or Murder?; Waffle House Sex Tape Scandal. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 22, 2016 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Breaking news tonight. A southern Cal high school cheerleader charged in murder. Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, the

cheerleader insists, I`m not guilty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A high school cheerleader has been charged in connection with the beating death of a San Diego man. He had been beaten,

tied up and robbed and left under some plywood for dead. He was hospitalized, declared brain dead and died four days later.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t understand how somebody can be so cruel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A deadly kayak accident where a groom-to-be, Vincent Fiore (ph), slips under the murky waters of a local river, the bride-to-be devastated.

But after a string of unusual Facebook postings, police hone in on the bride. Now reports she complains he asked for threesomes? And murder is

her only way out? How about a break-up?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kayak went under water! Oh, my God!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She complained in her diary about her fiance wanting a sexual threesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What partner hasn`t requested a threesome? It`s not a motive for murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted him dead, and now he`s gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is from ABC`s "20/20."

And tonight, the waffle house sex tape scandal.

Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Bombshell tonight. A southern California high school cheerleader charged in murder. In the last hours, the cheerleader insists, I`m not guilty.

It`s hard to put the phrase together, high school cheerleader, murder. It doesn`t fit. If you were to see this girl`s high school annual, you would

believe that she`s the belle of the ball, a gorgeous, young, smart cheerleader, the all-American girl, charged with murder, charged in

connection to a murder?

OK, Tom Perumean, investigative reporter joining me there in LA, it`s hard to put the photo of this girl as a cheerleader in her little cheerleading

outfit together with the murder and the brutal murder of this married father and grandfather.

TOM PERUMEAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (via telephone): Nancy, what went on out there, it`s not just -- it`s not the woman, but it`s the community that

these three suspects live in. This teenager, Ms. Suder, is a senior at Santana High School in the community of Santee. And Santee is well known

among San Diego locals as having a lot of problems. The nickname of the city is "Klantee." It`s a white supremacist stronghold. It`s had a lot of

racial problems and a lot of problems in general down through the years. So this is...

GRACE: Yes, I`d like to try to get to...

PERUMEAN: ... indicative of what`s going on out there.

GRACE: ... this particular case. I don`t know the history of Santee, the city. But what I do know is there is a father, grandfather, a guy in his

50s who the family is completely devastated over his loss that was hog- tied, beaten until he was brain dead, his body left out near a riverbank. His wife, with whom he lived down by that river, finds him. That is the

story that I`m concerned with.

And what in the hey did a Santee high school cheerleader have to do with it? There`s the scene, everyone. We have obtained video footage of the

scene where this victim, a 51-year-old father of five, grandfather of one was hog-tied, beaten brutally, kicked, punched in the head, left for dead,

hidden under plywood. And this varsity cheerleader is in on it?

I have reason to believe it has a lot to do with who she was dating, him and his brother there at the time.

Joining me right now is a very special guest, the daughter of the victim, George Lowery, found beaten, brain dead, rushed to the hospital. He died

in the hospital five days after the attack. With me, his daughter, Katey Torres.

Katey, thank you for being with us.

KATEY TORRES, DAUGHTER OF VICTIM (via telephone): Hi.

GRACE: You know, Katey, I know how you feel without your father. I just lost my father. And it has been one of the worst things I have ever lived

through. And it`s one of those things that every single one of us are going to have -- it`s a path we all have to walk, and it is a path you have

to walk alone. Nobody can help you.

[20:05:24]But the fact that your father was brutally murdered in this way adds so much more pain to him passing away. This man, George Lowery, was

happy, happy-go-lucky. And this is where he died, what we`re showing you right now. His five children loved him. His wife stood beside him. He

had one grandchild. And that`s all over. The grandchildren will grow up without him. His children will mature without their father.

Katey, when did you learn, your father, George Lowery, had been rushed to the hospital brain dead?

TORRES: I had just got off work, and my oldest brother, Preston, he called me and he said Hey, George was beat up, you need to pick up Penny (ph),

which is my mom and my dad. Said, You need to go pick up Penny. She`s at the spot, which is the lake. And the cops won`t let me through.

And I said, What? What do you mean? So I went down there, and the whole road was blocked off with crime scene tape and there were cops everywhere

and detectives. And I yelled to the cop and I said, Is this about for my dad? Is this all for my dad? And that`s when the cop came to me and he

said, yes, your dad was beat pretty bad and he`s in critical condition in the hospital. You need to go see him. And he`s not going to -- he`s not

going to make it.

GRACE: And now I`m looking at the cheerleader charged in connection with his murder. I want to warn you, the photos you are about to see are

graphic. Mr. Lowery fought for his life with his wife by his side, his children around his bed, his grandchild visiting the hospital.

And this is what he endured at the hands, reportedly, of a varsity cheerleader and her boyfriend and his brother. And yes, here she is crying

in court. I guess she is crying. She should be crying!

Katey Torres, so you get to the scene and you say, Are all of these cops here because of my father? When did you find out what had happened to your

dad, George?

TORRES: So the police officer, he said, Your father is in critical condition. He`s at the hospital. You should go see him. So I went to the

hospital where he was at. And the doctors, they all made me wait in the waiting room, waiting for my mom to get there. But the detectives kept my

mom at the crime scene for hours going through everything because she witnessed, well, not the whole scene, but she was there before and after

and she saw everybody.

GRACE: Oh!

(CROSSTALK)

TORRES: The doctor said...

GRACE: The doctor said what?

TORRES: When mom came, I went in there and I saw my dad. He was unconscious since my mother found him. The whole five days in the hospital

fighting, we couldn`t even talk to him.

GRACE: You know, Katey, I remember I had to fly out of town with my whole family. And right after I landed, I called my mom and she told me that

they were putting my dad on life support and for me to just try to get to him to try to see him before he died.

I will never forget it, and I can only imagine you going to that scene and then trying to get to your dad. And then when you got there, he`s

unconscious, and you don`t know whether he can hear you or not. That is exactly what happened.

TORRES: (INAUDIBLE) breathing tube and everything and beeping and everything. It was out of a nightmare. I`m still trying to be wakened up.

It`s still unreal.

GRACE: What -- another issue that we have uncovered -- as a matter of fact, Katey Torres, George`s daughter, please stay with me, Katy.

Unleash the lawyers. Joining me right now is a veteran trial attorney -- I know because I`ve been up against him in court -- Seth Kirschenbaum,

Carissa Kranz, multi-state attorney joining us, and out of LA, Troy Slaten, defense attorney.

Seth Kirschenbaum -- let me start with you, Seth, because this cheerleader is arguing that she really didn`t have anything to do with the murder, that

she was just there. And what we are discerning is her boyfriend had had a previous incident just four days before, Seth, where he had been targeting

homeless people and shooting them with paintballs and beating them and basically tormenting them.

[20:10:10]Seth, now, I know you`re a defense attorney, but you can reasonably look at these facts. Four days before this incident, there was

the other incident with another man that he tormented and tortured and he pled guilty. Then he and his girlfriend and little brother go out and they

find Mr. Lowery. And now he`s dead.

Give me one reason, Seth, that she should not be charged with murder one, along with her two buddies?

SETH KIRSCHENBAUM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, Nancy, I want to extend my condolences to the Lowery family and to Ms. Torres. My heart

goes out to them. I lost my father eight years ago, and there`s not a day that goes by that I don`t think about my father. So I`m very sorry for

your loss.

The problem with this case is that the cheerleader may well be the belle of the ball that you suggested. There`s no evidence that she participated in

this beating. There`s no evidence that she was actually physically present. She could have been in the car 50 yards away.

And she -- and the difference between her and other cases is she denies her involvement. And for a 19-year-old cheerleader, a beautiful girl who`s

never been in trouble, scared to death -- no wonder she`s crying in court. She`s scared to death. And the fact is that...

GRACE: She should be scared, Seth.

KIRSCHENBAUM: Of course she`s scared.

GRACE: But I want to take issue with something you said. I want to go back to Tom Perumean, investigative reporter. And also with me is Matt

Zarrell on the story. Matt, now, let`s understand this. Now, it could be argued that, hey, she didn`t know where they were going. Of course, I

think she did. Her boyfriend had just pled guilty to a similar attack on yet another innocent victim four days before. And now he`s out doing it

again.

So they`re all three in their vehicle, in his vehicle. Look, when you -- let me see that scene, Justin, please. When you go down into no-man`s-land

out there in the woods, you know you`re not going to the mall. You`re not driving through What-a-Burger. Why are you there?

Then they go to George Lowery. They start tormenting him. They beat him. They hog-tie him. They beat him unconscious, brain dead. Come back, you

know they had had blood on them. And then she helps them escape?

Now, I mean, Matt, that`s just like you and I and Seth Kirschenbaum going to rob a bank, and Seth is the getaway driver, and I end up killing

somebody in (ph) the bank teller. We`re all in it. We`re all responsible for that. And I don`t see how they can not charge her with murder!

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): I think that`s a good point, Nancy. One thing investigators are reportedly saying is they do

believe she was present when Lowery was beaten, but they have not yet found evidence that she took part in the attack.

One thing I should note, though. They took DNA samples from all three of these men. So during the autopsy, I`m sure they`d be able to figure out if

she physically touched the victim in any way.

GRACE: It is not OK to stand by, to take somebody to the scene, to let them stand by and watch, basically hold their water while they murder a guy

and then claim that she had nothing to do with it! This father and grandfather did not have to die!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:17:18]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) not guilty denying the allegations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inside court, 18-year-old Hailey Suder cried as she learned she would be held on $100,000 bail, accused of being involved in

Lowery`s fatal beating in the bed of the San Diego River in Santee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Joining me right now is the victim, George Lowery`s, daughter, who says she comes to the scene and sees this convergence of police cars and

crime scene tape and says, Is this all about my father? Katey Torres is with her (ph) on behalf of her family, the family of father and

grandfather, George Lowery.

Katey, when you hear them say she didn`t know what was going on -- I -- I just -- I mean, you get in a car with your boyfriend who`s just pled guilty

to the very same type of offense four days before, and you go out into the middle of nowhere -- you have to hear Mr. Lowery screaming. I mean, they

beat him brain dead. They hog-tied him, tried to hide his body.

How could she not know what was going on?

TORRES: She knew exactly what she was doing. The beating four days prior, my father had stopped that beating. Austin Mostrong ended up getting

arrested and charged with a bunch of stuff, so he brought his girlfriend and his brother to come get revenge on my father, who had tackled him.

GRACE: OK, Katey, I know about that, but I`d like you to explain it. What the daughter is saying right now is that her father died out of

retaliation. The previous attack that this guy had done, beating and tormenting a homeless guy -- this victim tried to stop that attack, George

Lowery. He was the witness against Mostrong, the boyfriend. And then once he pleads guilty, he comes looking for George Lowery to get him back.

Why do you believe, Katey, that the girl, the cheerleader, Hailey Suder, knew your father was being murdered?

TORRES: Well, the crime scene. If anybody saw the crime scene, their truck where they were, literally, my father was beaten right in front of

the truck. The truck was facing where my dad was found. So it was literally, like, 10 feet away from my father. How can you not see that?

And then she was there before it happened. My mother left. She came back, found my dad. She looked at Hailey in the eye. And my mom, she saw Hailey

right there, and Hailey looked out and she saw my dad bloody, bleeding, everything right there.

GRACE: Did you say...

(CROSSTALK)

TORRES: ... call, and she said, No, we don`t have a phone.

[20:20:02]GRACE: Katey, did you say your mother looked the cheerleader, Hailey Suder, right in the eye and she looked down? Is that what you said?

TORRES: Yes, I said that.

GRACE: You know, that to me -- I know the defense lawyers are going to scream, That proves nothing, but it proves something to me because I have

seen defendants in court, and when the victims or me, the prosecutor, would look them in the face, they`d look away. They couldn`t stand to even look

at the family of their victims.

Unleash the lawyers, Seth Kirschenbaum, Atlanta, Carissa Kranz, New York, multi-state lawyer, and Troy Slaten, LA.

OK, to you, Slaten. How can you -- you don`t have a leg to stand on now to say that she didn`t know what was going on. Did you hear George`s say it

happened right in front of the truck?

TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It doesn`t matter whether she knew. It doesn`t matter whether she was standing there watching. In California,

there`s no requirement that you come to somebody else`s aid. Now, if she tried to conceal the evidence of the crime after or tried to help them

escape -- which you said that she did, but I`ve seen no evidence of that -- then that could be a crime. But look, what happened to this man is

absolutely horrible.

GRACE: She drove there...

SLATEN: It`s tragic...

GRACE: ... on purpose with them...

SLATEN: It doesn`t matter.

GRACE: ... to kill George Lowery.

SLATEN: Nancy, even...

GRACE: Let me ask you this...

SLATEN: ... if she knew -- even if she knew that they were going to commit this horrible, crime, she has no duty to try and stop them.

GRACE: I`m not saying -- to you, Carissa Kranz -- that I expect her to stop it. I`m going to step further than that and I am saying she is part

of it. And she can cry and carry on all she wants to in a court of law, but I am not buying that.

yes, she`s crying now, but those are crocodile tears. She wasn`t crying the day she and her boyfriend drove all the way out there to murder George

Lowery. She knew darn well what was going on, Carissa!

CARISSA KRANZ, MULTI-STATE ATTORNEY: Just because she looked down does not mean she`s guilty. The facts are awful. And she looked down arguably

because she feels sorrow. She feels bad. She feels awful. She happened to be at the wrong place...

GRACE: She feels bad she`s going to jail. That`s why she feels bad.

KRANZ: She was at the wrong place at the wrong time, at this point. We don`t have anything against her to show that she was a part of the murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:26:30]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lowery`s wife, Penny, found him unconscious in a field near Chubb Lane and North Magnolia Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was his hangout spot. And just happened to be a couple feet away, he was murdered right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A father, a father of five, a grandfather to one, hog-tied and beaten brutally, brutally, until he is brain dead. And now a varsity

cheerleader is charged in connection with his murder, along with her boyfriend and his little brother.

To Matt Zarrell, on the story. Matt, what do prosecutors say -- there she is crying in court some more. Matt, what do prosecutors say their theory

is as to what happened?

ZARRELL: Well, investigators believe that, at least according to reports, is that it was, as you mentioned, a revenge-type of attack, based on the

prior incident four days earlier, where the older brother, Austin Mostrong, attacked another man, and the victim here came to the man`s defense.

GRACE: You know, I just am trying to understand, Tom Perumean, investigative reporter joining me from LA -- how long was the drive? I

mean, obviously, they`re not going out on a date. How can she say she didn`t know what was happening? Mr. Lowery was murdered 10 feet in front

of their vehicle!

PERUMEAN: Oh, exactly. Once again, you know, this is a small town. It`s not very big. And Mr. Mostrong, Austin Mostrong, was already charged in a

previous incident that took place. And even in reports coming out of Santee, friends of Hailey Suder say that once she started dating Austin

Mostrong, they noticed a change in her taking place.

GRACE: To Dr. Panchali Dhar, physician joining me out of New York -- Dr. Dhar, what does it mean to be brain dead? And why did he have to die?

DR. PANCHALI DHAR, PHYSICIAN: OK, brain dead means there is no blood flow to the brain. It`s stopped. There`s no blood going into the brain, so all

brain function is stopped. Your pupils are not reacting. You`re not responding to voice or commands. So essentially, the person is -- heart

is beating, but the brain is not functioning. Now, if you look at this guy`s pictures, Mr. Lowery`s pictures, he`s also in a hard collar, which

means his neck could be broken.

GRACE: To Katey Torres, the daughter of Mr. Lowery. And I want to warn you the photos are graphic. Katey, what is your message tonight? She has

gotten a lesser charge than the other two. And I disagree with that. I think she was part of this whole thing.

TORRES: Yes. I mean, she was there. My mother saw her. You know, she -- although she was there, she might not have touched my dad or, you know, but

she could have been egging them on, you know, like, Oh, yes, yes, hit him, you know...

GRACE: You mean like a cheerleader? Like a cheerleader?

TORRES: Yes, like cheering them on, Look at that. Yes. Who knows if she lured him in and they could jump away from a bush, you know, and came out

behind him. Also my dad had zero defensive wounds on him at all. He never threw one punch at them at all.

GRACE: Katey, tell the defense lawyers, who are defending her and saying she had nothing to do with this, what it was like for you to finally reach

your father at his hospital bed and him be unconscious.

[20:30:00] You never got to talk to him again.

TORRES: No, well, my father and I -- we had an argument. My father`s my best friend always. You know, he would call me when he was upset. We had

an argument in January, and I haven`t talked to him since.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: A deadly kayak incident where the groom-to-be, Vincent Viafore, slips under the murky waters of a local river. The bride-to-be devastated.

But after a string of unusual Facebook postings, police hone in on the bride.

Now, reports the bride complains he asked for threesomes. Let me understand this, murder is her only way out? How about a breakup?

[20:35:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say Graswald admitted tot hem that she tampered with Viafore`s kayak so he capsized and allegedly pushed his

paddle away while he struggled to stay afloat in frigid waters.

ANGELIKA GRASWALD, SUSPECTED OF MURDERING HER FIANCE: The water is very cold. I`m afraid he`s -- oh, my God.

I wanted to be free from the lifestyle that we had. The night life, the strip clubs, the threesomes. I didn`t want any part of that. I wanted to be

free from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is from ABC`s "20/20." To Mike Colvin, the ex-boyfriend of the suspect, Angelika Graswald, I`m not quite sure how she is turning in the

fact that the victim had gone to a strip club before s to the murder, but Mike, when you first found out that your former girlfriend -- you guys were

pretty close, is suspected in the ...

(CROSSTALK)

MIKE COLVIN, EX-BOYFRIEND OF SUSPECT, ANGELIKA GRASWALD: Yes.

GRACE: ... murder of her fiance, what was your reaction?

COLVIN: I was in shock, frankly. I mean, we dated for close to a year and a half. And although she certainly was capable of having a temper as just

about everybody is, I never in a million years would have thought that she was capable of something like this.

GRACE: So what do you make of the fact that she and the victim, her fiance, Vincent Viafore, has developed a passion for kayaking. Was she always so

sports minded?

COLVIN: It`s funny that you bring that up. As we were in the process of breaking up, she met a guy at her place of work that had a kayak and it was

the first I had ever heard of her interest. I mean, I knew that when she was growing up in Latvia, she lived near the Baltic Sea, but I -- she never

brought up kayaking to me, until she started hanging out with this guy that had one.

And, you know, she was still living under my roof, but we were no longer a couple. And by the time that our relationship ended, that`s who she ended

moving on with. But that was the first time that a kayak was introduced in conversation with us. It was not something that I ever did or that she ever

offered to have me join her in.

GRACE: So, was that boyfriend Vincent Viafore?

COLVIN: No, it was a guy named Pat. And they didn`t last long. I think they were only together for a couple of weeks after she moved out of my

residence. But, you know, that -- the picture that seemed to be making the rounds last year at this time when all the news shows were doing the

feature, there`s a photo of her paddling on her own that she made her Facebook splash page -- splash photo before she was arrested.

He`s the one that took it because in addition to kayaking, he was also an avid photographer.

GRACE: Wow. Well to hear her tell it, it was all an accident. You know what I`m interested in, Mike Colvin, former boyfriend of Angelika Graswald, now

suspected in the murder of her fiance just before the wedding, he has a kayak incident where he dies and she, mysteriously, lives.

Could you tell me about when you guys break up and you were not going to give her back the cat.

COLVIN: Well, here was the situation. We lived together, as I mentioned for about a year and a half. During that time, my sister`s cat had a litter of

kittens and we picked one of them up on Labor Day of 2009.

So, you know, flash forward to July 4th, 201o, which is the date of the incident, she insists after getting her belongings that wanted the cat as

well.

Here is the problem. The gentleman that she was going to be moving in with had been kicked out of his apartment by his sister because she didn`t want

anything to do with Angelika living at her place.

So, at the time, he was between homes and was literally living in a tent alongside the Hudson River, the same river that the incident took place

last year.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: So what did she do when you wouldn`t give up the cat?

COLVIN: I -- well, I just said, well, if you are living in a tent, that`s no place to house a cat for a number of reasons that are obvious.

Certainly, the biggest reason being that, you know, outside of the tent ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike -- what did she do when you would not give her the cat?

COLVIN: Well, I`m a disk jockey by trade and I was on my way to a July 4th gig that day. I had my car running so that I could get air-conditioning. It

was a Ford Escape at the time.

And she actually laid down behind my truck to prevent me from backing out of the driveway to get to my event. And she said that if I didn`t give the

cat to her, that she was going to break into the house and take it herself.

Now, at this point, her anger was such that I believed every word she said. So rather than having to risk breaking a window or breaking a door down to

take the cat, I finally relented and gave it to her once she had, you know, gone as far as to lay down behind my truck.

(CROSSTALK)

[20:40:00] GRACE: Hold on just one moment, Mike. I`m now being joined by Stacey Newman. Stacey, take a look at what she says. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH VARGAS, ABC`S "20/20" ANCHORWOMAN: Did you kill Vince?

GRASWALD: No.

VARGAS: That day?

GRASWALD: No, I didn`t kill him.

VARGAS: Did you do anything that you knew might lead to him being hurt?

GRASWALD: No, I didn`t.

VARGAS: Or him dying in the river?

GRASWALD: No, I loved him. I didn`t do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is from ABC`s "20/20." So, Stacey, why do police believe she did do it?

STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, first of all, what`s at issue here is the two separate confessions. One she gave to police,

allegedly, at the island where this accident happened and then what we are seeing on these interrogation tapes.

She told police that she pulled the drain plug from the kayak, he flipped over, she tampered with the paddle and basically watched him drown.

And then on the police interrogation tapes, she told them that she was happy he was dead, she was happy that he was gone because she wanted to be

free from this life supposedly of threesomes, porn, his jealousy and this deviant sex life.

GRASWALD: Well, you know what, it`s a fine time to say all that now, after you pulled the plug on his kayak. You know, she could have just broken up,

Stacey. Eric Stiller joining me, founder of Manhattan Kayak Company.

Eric, thanks for being with us. What do you think of the claim that his drain plug was simply removed from the kayak? Could that make him sink?

ERIC STILLER, MANHATTAN KAYAK COMPANY FOUNDER: The type of boat that they have, which is a recreational type of kayak that the drain plug is being

used to spill the water out at the end of your day, is very small, about the size of a nickel, maybe a quarter.

And if it pulled out all by itself, it would not fill the kayak with enough water to cause an appreciable problem unless the conditions have gotten a

little bit rough. And from what I have read, it seems that the waves got -- weather moved in, waves came up and started to -- that could now start to

lapse into that back area and into that hole a bit.

If the waves got worse and some water got in to stabilize the kayak and so forth, there are other waves that come in and ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: I hear you say you would need not only the plug out, but weather conditions, which did exist that day and the plug was gone.

Unleash the lawyers, Seth Kirschenbaum, Carissa Kranz and Troy Slaten. Troy Slaten, why is she now complaining he asked me for threesomes? Why not

breakup?

TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, the whole issue here is whether or not this interview confession was coerced. When you are talking to police,

they have to tell you your rights, like we see in every T.V. and movie. You got the right to remain silent - your Miranda rights, and seven hours ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: What are you talking about? That`s not what I asked you.

SLATEN: Seven hours into this interview, she is asking, who is Miranda? She doesn`t understand what`s going on at all.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: OK. You know what? I appreciate what you are doing, Troy. You are talking about U.S., (ph) the Miranda case. But Seth, first of all, what I`m

talking about is, now she`s claiming poor, pitiful me, he asked me to do a threesome and I didn`t want to. What -- she`s never heard of a breakup? You

just heard her ex-boyfriend. They broke up. The guy in between, they broke up. Why not just break up?

KIRSCHENBAUM: It doesn`t mean she killed him. And I agree with the other lawyer that this case is about a false confession that was extracted from a

vulnerable woman after an 11-hour interrogation. Forty percent of people were (inaudible) from death row were convicted based on false coerced

confessions. And that`s what probably happened in this case.

[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Tonight, the Waffle House sex tape scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the most powerful businessmen in Atlanta told me he takes responsibility.

JOE ROGERS, JR, ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: Disappointed in a lot of people. I have met a lot of folks there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This stems from allegations from a woman who used to work for Joe Rogers, Jr. She claims Rogers sexually assaulted her over a

period of about eight years while she worked for the Waffle House CEO at his home.

Recorded videos in Rogers` home of him involved in sexual liaisons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Dan O`Donnell, anchor with WISN, I read very carefully and studied the facts about her claims that she was sexually harassed on the job by one

of the two co-founders of Waffle House, both, I might add, are veterans. And it was very convincing until I got to the blackmail part. What

happened, Dan?

DAN O`DONNELL, NEWS/TALK 1130 WISN ANCHOR/REPORTER: Well, it certainly does sound as though this was a classic case of extortion. Two attorneys working

on behalf of the accuser essentially tried to put pressure on this man to settle $250,000 lawsuit by threatening to release this tape to the public,

a tape that the accuser allegedly made of a sexual liaison with him.

GRACE: OK. Hold on. Let me back it up just a moment. Michael Christian, let`s take it from the top. What do we know?

MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The housekeeper involved here, personal assistant, her name is Mye Brindle. She worked for this man, Joe

Rogers, Jr. for approximately 10 years, Nancy. And she says during that entire 10 years, he basically forced her to engage in sexual acts with him,

not necessarily actual sex ...

(CROSSTALK)

[20:50:00] GRACE: Did you say 10 years?

CHRISTIAN: ... sexual intercourse. Yes, 10 years.

GRACE: Ten years.

CHRISTIAN: 2003 to 2012 ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: OK. Wasn`t there a time that she quit and then went back to work for him?

CHRISTIAN: That`s right. At one point, about 2008 or so, she broke her leg or legs, apparently, and couldn`t work for him anymore. So, she says that

he fired her but after she was recuperated and was looking for another job, she said she couldn`t find one so she went back to him.

GRACE: Joining me right now is Seth Kirschenbaum, Carissa Kranz and Troy Slaten. Now, Seth, you are actually representing one of the lawyers, David

Cohen, that represented her, the housekeeper/personal assistant.

I was all into her story, Seth, until I find out they, reportedly, allegedly, I`m throwing that in for you, Seth, allegedly, tried to

blackmail him or they were going to make a sex tape public? There is a sex tape. Why would she make a sex tape?

KIRSCHENBAUM: She made that tape because, in her words, she said, I`m a nobody. And nobody would have believed me. And so she was trying to gather

evidence that this man, for eight years, had required her to commit to masturbate him on a regular basis for eight years.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Put him up.

KIRSCHENBAUM: This was not a relationship. They never hugged.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Hold on.

KIRSCHENBAUM: They never kissed. He just wanted her to masturbate him ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Hold on.

KIRSCHENBAUM: ... on a regular basis ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Hold on. Seth ...

KIRSCHENBAUM: ... and she was trying to gather evidence.

GRACE: Seth, I hear you. I hear you. But, if she`s saying nobody will believe me. Did she ever go to the police?

KIRSCHENBAUM: She went to a series of lawyers, and ...

GRACE: Police. Did she go to police? You`re saying lawyers. I want to hear police.

KIRSCHENBAUM: There was a time ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Did she go to police?

KIRSCHENBAUM: There was a time when she attempted to go to the police and to get the police involved.

GRACE: And?

KIRSCHENBAUM: Nothing came of it.

GRACE: You said she attempted to go to police. Did she file a police report?

KIRSCHENBAUM: Yes.

GRACE: And?

KIRSCHENBAUM: She did. The police did not take action as far as I know. But she went to lawyers. And all times in this case, lawyers acting ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: To get money?

KIRSCHENBAUM: She went to lawyers, and at all times in this case, lawyers were acting as lawyers representing a client with a civil claim. And it is

unprecedented for lawyers to be indicted for representing a client in a civil case.

Never has a lawyer been indicted for delivering a demand letter. Never has a lawyer been indicted for making a demand in a mediation, a mediation

asked for by Joe Rogers` lawyer.

Joe Rogers` lawyer picked the mediator, and the mediator came into the room and asked for a demand. And the demand was made at a mediation, and that is

the basis for extortion.

[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rogers has stated this was all an extortion attempt by his former employee to collect millions. The accuser`s lawyers dispute

that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... going back and forth. It is not an extortion case. It is a court case.

ROGERS: I`m standing here being the victim of my own stupidity. But I don`t want to be the victim of these crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Michael Christian, you just heard Kirschenbaum say she filed a police report. But when did she file a police report?

CHRISTIAN: Nancy, as far as I know, and based on the court documents that I`ve read and there are a lot of them in this case, she did go to police

after she had filed her original civil lawsuit against Joe Rogers.

GRACE: For money. OK. Hold on. Terry Lyles, Dr. Lyles, Psychologist and author of "Crack the Stress Code," what do you make of this situation?

DR. TERRY LYLES, PSYCHOLOGIST: Look, there were a lot of places she could have went if the police didn`t respond to her. I mean, she could go to

social groups, she could go to community service centers, churches, the media, she could have went to a lot of places. It just sounds really

interesting to me that she went to not attorneys first. I`m not an attorney, obviously, but it sounds like she had motives to do

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: But another thing, Terry ...

(CROSSTALK)

LYLES: ... what she wants to do to prove this ...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... if a man had sexually assaulted me, the last thing I would want to do is go back and work for him, or be around him.

LYLES: Absolutely.

GRACE: That`s problematic for a jury. However, if she is under duress, maybe somebody on the jury could understand that.

To hector Carillo, tech expert with Spy Tec, Inc., Hector, how did she make the sex tape?

HECTOR CARILLO, SPY TEC, INC TECH EXPERT: I`m thinking she was wearing a body camera. Something that she had, either in a button, a watch, glasses,

something that`s very inconspicuous because again, from listening to what you guys are saying, she went into this person`s home to perform this act.

So it can`t be a camera that can`t be setup. It looks like she was wearing something when she went.

GRACE: You know, that`s a very good point. But, Hector, joining me from Spy Tec, Inc. If she was there everyday, she could easily set something up

without them knowing about it, right?

CARILLO: It`s possible, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Well, you know ...

CARILLO: I mean, you have water bottles and very small cameras that she could hide from anywhere.

GRACE: Yeah. The fly in the ointment (ph) is the alleged blackmail for money. Well see where it goes.

Let`s stop and honor American hero, new bride Julie Stroyne, saving an unconscious woman, victim, unresponsive on a Pittsburgh bench when Julie

gives life-saving CPR, still wearing her wedding dress. Julie Stroyne, American hero.

And our thoughts and prayers to Kansas friend Gayle. Here she is with daughter, Michelle, taking care of her mom. Gayle, please, stay strong.

Thank you to our guests but as always, to you for being with us. Nancy Grace, signing off. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8 o`clock sharp, Eastern.

And until then, good night, friend.

[21:00:00]

END